New welterweight Martin Kampmann to meet UFC newcomer at UFC 93

After a loss to middleweight Nate Marquardt in September at UFC 88, Martin Kampmann will now drop a weight class and make his welterweight debut at UFC 93.

The event takes place Jan. 17 at The 02 in Dublin, Ireland.

With the night’s televised, pay-per-view main card already announced, Kampmann will likely fight on the night’s preliminary card. And his manager said it’ll likely come against a UFC newcomer.

“They haven’t (released his opponent),” Ken Pavia of MMAAgents.com told TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), the official radio partner of MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “He is fighting in Ireland definitively, though. There’s a couple different guys we’re tossing around. They’ll be new guys to the UFC.”

Kampmann (13-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) debuted in the UFC in 2006 and posted four consecutive victories as a middleweight. The streak, which included a 16-month layoff from March 2007 to June 2008 due to a substantial knee injury, pushed his overall win streak to nine straight wins.

After the knee injury, Kampmann defeated Jorge Rivera at UFC 85, but three months later at UFC 88, he suffered an 82-second TKO drubbing to Marquardt.

MMAjunkie.com reported after the fight that Kampmann was considering a move to welterweight, and earlier this week, fiveouncesofpain.com reported that his 170-pound debut would come at UFC 93.

Although Kampmann was never one of the division’s bigger middleweights, the drop to welterweight hasn’t been an easy one.

“We did a trial cut to 171 (pounds),” Pavia said. “And (Phil) Baroni helped him. He says, ‘Kampmann made it.’ I said, ‘How did he do?’ He goes, ‘Oh, man. He was a bitch. He was crying. He never cut (weight) before.’ I called Kampmann. I go, ‘How did the cut go?’ He goes, ‘Man, I was a bitch. It was terrible.'”

Although his specific opponent is still being determined, Kampmann, who recently signed a UFC contract extension, is expected to meet a UFC newcomer, likely from the local fight scene in Ireland. After all, the 26-year-old Kampmann isn’t committed entirely to 170 pounds and instead sees his upcoming fight as a trial run.

“We’re going to rebuild him,” Pavia said. “We’re changing weight classes. It’s a weight he’s never fought at before, so we don’t want him to jump in against a (Josh) Koscheck or (Jon) Fitch. He’s not ready for that, quite frankly. It’s his first time at 170 . We’re going to see how it goes and see how the weight is. And if it goes well, we’ll start climbing the ladder again.”

For the latest on UFC 93, which features a main event between Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

This story was produced with TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com) specially for MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). The show — which is hosted by fighter/broadcaster Frank Trigg, Gorgeous George and ace producer Goze — books some of the biggest names in MMA. Download all the former episodes at www.taggradio.com, or tune into TAGG Radio’s live shows Monday-Friday at noon ET/9 a.m. PT.